Boys tennis: Fairfield's Luo advances to state; Ottumwa's Rath, Storto fall short
OTTUMWA — Ruimin Luo, Logan Storto and Dominick Rath have all been thinking about ending their high school tennis seasons at state for months.
All three area players had state tournament berths within reach on Wednesday. Luo was able to seize it in Fairfield.
Rath and Storto, however, saw their last chance at state slip through their fingers on their home court in Ottumwa.
Luo was able to battle through three matches in the 1A state singles district tournament held in Jefferson County. The Fairfield senior clinched a second straight state berth with a 6-4, 6-2 win in the district semifinals over Central DeWitt senior Dexter Westbay before putting away a 6-3, 6-1 win over Saber junior Max Froeschle in the championship match setting up Luo for a potential top-four seed in the 1A boys state tennis tournament in Waterloo.
"It was really tricky. My opponent (Froeschle) was running around getting every ball back. I was surprised how many of those passing shots and lobs that he hit," Luo said. "I held my ground and stepped up at the important moments to win the match."
Less than 30 miles west, Storto and Rath were hoping to secure a spot in the 2A state doubles tournament. The Ottumwa senior teammates put themselves on the cusp of a trip to Iowa City thanks to a 6-0, 6-2 win over Cedar Rapids Kennedy teammates Austin Guck and Oliver Poggenklass in the district quarterfinals at Dan Staggs Family Courts.
Rath and Storto moved within a set of the state tournament trip after winning a 6-2 opening set over Iowa City West teammates Junze Sun and Ishan Harwani. That, however, is when the true battle for the semifinal win and state tournament berth really began as Sun and Harwani built a 5-2 lead in the second set before Rath and Storto rallied to force a tiebreaker, overcoming three set points to tie the set at 6-6.
In the tiebreaker, Rath and Storto built up leads of 6-4 and 7-6, giving the Ottumwa teammates three different match points. Sun and Harwani took advantage of key service errors, however, to ultimately extend the tiebreaker winning 9-7 to force a decisive third set before bouncing back from a two-game deficit to win the match and the state tournament berth with a 2-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-4 victory ultimately giving Iowa City West five state tournament qualifiers including a pair of teams advancing to play in state doubles later this month.
"They had opportunities to win that match and just couldn't quite get it done," Ottumwa head boys tennis coach Mark Hanson said. "That kind of made it a long day for us. We kind of had it there in the palm of our hands and then we didn't.
I feel bad for those guys. They worked so hard for so long to get to this point. It's heartbreaking for them. It hurts. It'll sting for awhile for sure."
